Thursday, December 2, 2010

The weather in Venice was nice almost the entire time we were there. However, on the second to last day it poured down rain the entire day, the whole Island flooded (thank goodness for hunter rain boots) and became deserted. We walked around in the rain for most of the afternoon and ended up visiting St. Marks Basilica. The Church was beautiful and because there was no one around we got to wander about the first level of the church alone. It was very peaceful inside the church and the beauty of it was so overpowering that I am not even going to attempt to explain because I wont be able to do it justice. I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to travel around Venice.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Monday, November 22, 2010

While in Italy I became a little obsessed with the doors of peoples houses. I know it seems a little weird, but all of the houses were so beautifully constructed and the doors were so interesting to look at. I just couldn't stop my self from taking pictures of doors!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

One of the oddest things about our holiday in Turkey was the overabundance of stray cats and dogs. According to a Turkish friend of mine, many visitors from the main cities in Turkey (such as Istanbul) come to the Mediterranean side of the country during summer months. While there they purchase kittens and puppies to play with over their months long summer holiday; when their vacation is over they then abandon the animals on the streets. Because of this, there are hundreds of stray cats and dogs roaming the streets of Turkey. My flatmate and I found this really upsetting, at one point we found a three or four week old kitten who was extremely skinny and obviously starving for food and affection. She followed us around town for a few hours and I had to work really hard to convince my flatmate that we couldn't take her and sneak her past customs and bring her back to England. Luckily a local man took pity on the kitten and promised to keep her and take care of her.

Monday, November 15, 2010

My flatmate and I took a spur of the moment holiday to Turkey during our school reading break this past week. We booked the trip three days before we left, because it was so last minute I was left scrambling trying to find clothing that could be worn in warm weather. I left ALL of my summer clothing/shoes back in America so we had to do a mad dash through my wardrobe to find clothing that would work well in the warm climate. I ended up making due with two sleeveless day dresses (worn in town with a cardigan to be respectful of their culture), one pair of leggings, and a pair wedge nude colored sandals. My favorite clothing item for the holiday turned out to be a blue oversized men's style sleep shirt that I was able to convert into a coverup for the beach/pool (thank goodness I over packed for London and brought a bikini with me!!!!) that also doubled as tunic worn belted with white skinny jeans during the day. Holiday packing can be a little stressful, however with the amount of traveling I have been doing lately I have learned that it is best to pack lightly and to bring things that can be worn during the day and dressed up for night.

Friday, November 5, 2010

As everyone knows I am a little obsessive about fashion, and living in London has proven to be a fashion feast for my eyes! The British have an amazing innate sense of style and I am constantly entertained by people watching. I love to see how my mates and random people on the street put their outfits together. One of the reasons why I love fashion so much here, is because there is a freedom of expression that we don't seem to have at home, everyone wears whatever they feel like wearing and there seems to be no judgement from others. For example one of my classmates wore a sparkly dress to lecture with black combat boots, black tights and a fur jacket and no one acted as if wearing a party dress and fur coat to lecture was out of the normal-perhaps thats because that is the norm in London. One of the major trends in London right now is military chic. Military chic can be worn a number of different ways, I prefer to incorporate military style in my outfits in a soft utility way. For example, paring short tie-up combat boots, with tights and a floral dress with a belted cardigan, or wearing my green cargo trousers with high heels and a soft tailored blouse . If you are a little tense about this trend, then try to incorporate it in your outfit by simply altering an item of clothing that you already have. I changed the buttons on one of my favorite camel jackets to vintage military buttons-thus embracing the trend without looking overtly trendy. How will you embrace military chic this Autumn?

Sunday, October 24, 2010

One of the things I miss the most about America is the abundance of good coffee shops, therefore I was overjoyed to find that a brand new coffee and breakfast/lunch shop had opened up right down the street from my flat in London.The London Particular is the perfect place to meet up with your mates for a late morning breakfast and cappuccino; although I must confess that I can't wait for Christmas in America because I am dying for a latte from River Maiden

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

This is a picture of the London Eye . You can see the eye from the kitchen window of my flat, the quality of the picture is not that great because its so far away and I had to practically hang upside down out the window to take it. However, looking from my window the eye is crystal clear and at night it lights up the skyline and glows with colors of purple and blue.

The second day in Ireland was certainly full of adventure! We left our hostel early in the morning and drove for almost two hours to Killarney, where we planned on kayaking and biking around the forest. By the time we arrived in Killarney the weather had shifted considerably and it was bitterly cold and VERY windy (apparently it was a record warm weather day for Ireland in October).Because it was so windy and due to the fact that I was battling a bad case of the flu it was decided that I should not go kayaking and risk getting sicker; therefore while everyone else was on the lake, I was in town enjoying a cappuccino and rhubarb pie! When I returned to the designated meeting area in the forest, we discovered that the rest of the girls had been blown so hard by the wind that they had capsized and were completely off course; one of the girls was able to make it back to shore but search and rescue helicopters had to be called in to locate the other girls and bring them back...so as it turns out the flu saved me from a disastrous kayaking trip! Once most of the girls were back on shore (the last girl took about three hours to be located and united with the rest of us) we set out on a hiking trip through Torc Mt. I absolutely loved hiking through Torc, the views and surrounding nature were breathtaking and the air smelled so clean and crisp compared to the nasty polluted London air. Once we were done with the hike, we drove back to Cork and had another amazing night of dinner and dancing in Irish pubs!